Just to weigh in on the whole season 8 thing...
I've seen quite a few comments lately saying "They should have taken out the one-shots and focused on the main story" or "It's going on too long - why didn't they get to the Twangel bit faster?" or similar.
And it surprises me. Because, actually, I'd want the opposite.
Suppose there's a comic book. A comic book spawned from a tv show called Betty the Cyborg Slayer, in which Betty and her friends fight evil and rid the world from cyborgs on a weekly basis.
And then there was a big battle, and Betty ended up with an army of fellow Slayers, and the cyborg factory exploded with all the MegaBorgs in it, and the world was saved. Epic end to the show.
So, anyway, the comic book...
The comic book starts with a four-issue story, in which Betty and her friends have to deal with a rogue cyborg running amok in Chicago.
(And in the middle of issue 2, they're sneaking through the downtown mall towards the rogue cyborg's hideout, and they sneak past a conversation about someone called Sparks.)
And then there's a one-issue story about Betty's old friend Fiona, who's been tracking down a cyborg spy hiding somewhere in Asia.
(And when Fi breaks into the office of the guy she's monitoring, one of the files on his desk mentions "The Sparks Program". But it's not relevant to her investigation, so she doesn't bother reading it.)
Next, there's a four-issue story about Betty dealing with a Slayer who's been reprogramming cyborgs to beat up people she doesn't like.
(One of the cyborgs, while shutting down, starts repeating nonsense phrases - like they do - and starts talking about "sparks... database... error... error... sparks... minichip... error...")
And then there's a one-issue about one of the new Slayers, doing battle against a cyborg in Berlin, and angstily wondering about what life could have been like if she hadn't been called to cyborg-slaying.
(One of the cyborg's minions mentions "Sparke" in the middle of a conversation with his boss - but the entire conversation's in German, so we don't necessarily notice.)
Then we go back to Fiona, who's still in Asia - and we spend four issues with her...
...you see the point?
The Cyborg Slayer comics are all about the one-shots. There's a problem, there's a resolution, we move on to the next story, and all the time there's this other story happening. By issue 12, the fans are pouring over the comics, looking for more references to "Sparks", and claiming that page 23 must be significant, because the damaged computer in the background is throwing sparks everywhere, and what is this about, anyway? When are we going to find out more? When are the characters going to start figuring it out?
And yet, no-one feels like it's taking too long - because every one-shot gets resolved; every four-issue arc ends with a neat resolution; if anything, it's going fast.
I guess I'm wanting something similar to Nine's arc on Doctor Who. Lots of fun stories, lots of neat little resolutions - and always, in the background, the constant repetitions of "Bad Wolf". You don't even notice it the first few times - but by the end of the season you're going back over everything, looking for more references, because it's everywhere.
As I see it, the problem with the season 8 comics (or one of the problems, anyway) isn't that there are so many little stories - it's that there's no real resolution.
The first arc? Let's see: Dawn is a giant, Amy's working with Warren, the government are after the Slayers, Buffy falls asleep, Ethan gets killed, zombies attack the castle, Willow flies, Willow gets lobotomised...
...and the whole thing ends with the government going "Hey, Slayer! We're going to attack you!" and Buffy saying "Bring it on!" - end of story.
There's no resolution. The four-issue story is over, and we don't know why anything happened, they didn't stop Amy (just delayed her), they didn't solve anything apart from turning zombies into gentlemen at a dance. The closest we can come to a resolution is "Buffy wakes up". (And we still don't know who kissed her - that'll have to wait a few more issues.)
Take away the one-shots, and you're still left with at least a 20-issue comic, with no ending in sight. Make more one-shots (or shorter story arcs), and there'd be resolutions all over the place - but still a longer story lurking in the background, waiting to become the main plotline right when we're not expecting it...
*sighs*
I can dream, can't I?
And it surprises me. Because, actually, I'd want the opposite.
Suppose there's a comic book. A comic book spawned from a tv show called Betty the Cyborg Slayer, in which Betty and her friends fight evil and rid the world from cyborgs on a weekly basis.
And then there was a big battle, and Betty ended up with an army of fellow Slayers, and the cyborg factory exploded with all the MegaBorgs in it, and the world was saved. Epic end to the show.
So, anyway, the comic book...
The comic book starts with a four-issue story, in which Betty and her friends have to deal with a rogue cyborg running amok in Chicago.
(And in the middle of issue 2, they're sneaking through the downtown mall towards the rogue cyborg's hideout, and they sneak past a conversation about someone called Sparks.)
And then there's a one-issue story about Betty's old friend Fiona, who's been tracking down a cyborg spy hiding somewhere in Asia.
(And when Fi breaks into the office of the guy she's monitoring, one of the files on his desk mentions "The Sparks Program". But it's not relevant to her investigation, so she doesn't bother reading it.)
Next, there's a four-issue story about Betty dealing with a Slayer who's been reprogramming cyborgs to beat up people she doesn't like.
(One of the cyborgs, while shutting down, starts repeating nonsense phrases - like they do - and starts talking about "sparks... database... error... error... sparks... minichip... error...")
And then there's a one-issue about one of the new Slayers, doing battle against a cyborg in Berlin, and angstily wondering about what life could have been like if she hadn't been called to cyborg-slaying.
(One of the cyborg's minions mentions "Sparke" in the middle of a conversation with his boss - but the entire conversation's in German, so we don't necessarily notice.)
Then we go back to Fiona, who's still in Asia - and we spend four issues with her...
...you see the point?
The Cyborg Slayer comics are all about the one-shots. There's a problem, there's a resolution, we move on to the next story, and all the time there's this other story happening. By issue 12, the fans are pouring over the comics, looking for more references to "Sparks", and claiming that page 23 must be significant, because the damaged computer in the background is throwing sparks everywhere, and what is this about, anyway? When are we going to find out more? When are the characters going to start figuring it out?
And yet, no-one feels like it's taking too long - because every one-shot gets resolved; every four-issue arc ends with a neat resolution; if anything, it's going fast.
I guess I'm wanting something similar to Nine's arc on Doctor Who. Lots of fun stories, lots of neat little resolutions - and always, in the background, the constant repetitions of "Bad Wolf". You don't even notice it the first few times - but by the end of the season you're going back over everything, looking for more references, because it's everywhere.
As I see it, the problem with the season 8 comics (or one of the problems, anyway) isn't that there are so many little stories - it's that there's no real resolution.
The first arc? Let's see: Dawn is a giant, Amy's working with Warren, the government are after the Slayers, Buffy falls asleep, Ethan gets killed, zombies attack the castle, Willow flies, Willow gets lobotomised...
...and the whole thing ends with the government going "Hey, Slayer! We're going to attack you!" and Buffy saying "Bring it on!" - end of story.
There's no resolution. The four-issue story is over, and we don't know why anything happened, they didn't stop Amy (just delayed her), they didn't solve anything apart from turning zombies into gentlemen at a dance. The closest we can come to a resolution is "Buffy wakes up". (And we still don't know who kissed her - that'll have to wait a few more issues.)
Take away the one-shots, and you're still left with at least a 20-issue comic, with no ending in sight. Make more one-shots (or shorter story arcs), and there'd be resolutions all over the place - but still a longer story lurking in the background, waiting to become the main plotline right when we're not expecting it...
*sighs*
I can dream, can't I?